A persistent amateur baker from Esquimalt is taking on some sweet challenges in front of a national audience.
Breaking records before even facing the first televised task, Jen Childs claims the title for most applications to The Great Canadian Baking Show, having auditioned for the show every year since the first season.
“If you want to get better at something, it’s important to face new challenges and maybe to take some risks,” she told the Victoria News. “A TV show is just that.”
Hurdles are something Childs faces intentionally, regularly racing on extreme obstacle courses.
“If you take up those challenges and do the hard things by choice when the trials come up in life it’s little bit easier. And it’s a lot of fun.”
The application itself is like a “self-imposed workshop” as experimentation kicked into high gear ahead of casting, according to the mom and book keeper.
Her kids – now 9, 11 and 13 – grew up enjoying “baking season”.
“They’ve been around for the full adventure,” Childs said with a laugh. “They know it’s time I dedicate to something I want to get good at … and they get to taste it all.”
Each year she hit various levels of acceptance. Now in its eighth season, 45-year-old hit the mark – competing against fellow British Columbian Marcus Tam, a 30-year-old tax manager from Vancouver, and eight other bakers from Alberta, New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario.
The show brings together 10 amateur bakers from across the country to compete in a series of themed culinary challenges that celebrate their diverse backgrounds, families and communities.
Sworn to secrecy over the show filmed in the heat of spring in Toronto, led to some awkward situations from supportive family and friends who knew full-well she couldn’t divulge – yea or nay. But the whole family kept the secret as Childs embarked on weeks of preparation, and planned for six weeks of filming (time will tell how many of those weeks she needed).
Each episode features three rounds: the signature bake, the technical bake and the show stopper. After the judges taste and critique the bakes, they crown one Star Baker and ask one baker to leave. The final three bakers compete for the title.
“It really is set up like a baking retreat or summer camp. It’s set up as dedicated time to dive into more baking,” she said.
She also came away with a wonderful new library of recipes.
“The really fun takeaway was that I got to prepare so many new recipes and had to write them down which I’m not very good at normally.”
Among the favourites is her Black Forest cake crafted as her Episode 1 “show stopper”, in part because it started as her late mother-in-law’s recipe. The cake took shape – the rules dictated a split cake – inspired by a woman who nourished those around her. Those kind of connections and stories are common among the bakers and recipes, Childs said.
It may have helped in development of a camaraderie that remains even stronger than she anticipated.
“Bakers are fun to hang out with,” she said during a phone interview while on the road to Ontario for an obstacle course race, and a visit with a new friend and fellow baker.
Childs hopes viewers will root for everyone, regardless of when each baker is sent packing.
“I hope people can cheer for all the bakers because they’re all spectacular.”
The eight-episode show premiered Oct. 6 and streams weekly on Sunday mornings on CBC Gem followed by broadcast on CBC TV at 8 p.m.
